stock of goods carried by the explorers was soon exhausted. But both Lewis and Clark were skilled in the use of common remedies for the diseases which prevailed among the Indians, and by selling their "drugs " at a high price they were able to buy the supplies which were indispensable to them. The snow still lay deep in the gulches when the party reached the western base of the Rocky Mountains, impeding their progress for many days; but in spite of all obstacles, they made the journey with complete success, reaching St. Louis on the 23d of September, just six months out from the mouth of the Columbia.^
1 Captain Lewis went at once to Washington to make his report to President Jefferson. Soon afterward he was appointed governor of Missouri Territory, but died very suddenly and mysteriously, in 18og, at the early age of thirty-five.
Captain Clark was for many years the United States superintendent of Indian affairs for the West, with headquarters at St. Louis. He died in 1838.
The journals of the expedition, very much amended and abbreviated, were first published in 1814 under the editorship of Nicholas Biddle. Many editions, based upon this one, have appeared since that time, the most satisfactory being that by Dr. Elliott Coues, New York, 1891, 3 vols. A new edition, containing a literal transcript of the complete journals, and much matter relating to the expedition not hitherto published, was issued in 1905 under the editorship of Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL. D.
